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Putting the Fun Back in Fundraising

We got a lot of great feedback from the blogosphere about “Our Top 7 Social Entrepreneurship Blogs” post, so we thought we’d provide another short list of resources for your social change needs. This time, we’re covering the world of fundraising.

The source of inspiration for this post was a recent series on the Wild Apricot Blog: 6 Unique Online Fundraising Techniques for Your Nonprofit. In this six part collection, Lance Trebesch and Taylor Robinson from TicketPrinting.com provide some great ideas on how to use your organization’s website as a way to secure donations and increase funding.

Check out the posts below.

1. Social Networking
2. Online Auctions
3. Email Campaign
4. Wiki Pages and Event Calendars
5. Blogs
6. Online Raffles

Also, be sure to check out these fundraising resources:

www.foundationcenter.org
The Foundation Center's mission is “to strengthen the nonprofit sector by advancing knowledge and U.S. philanthropy.” Their website collects, organizes, and shares information helpful to those seeking funding for their organization. Be sure to check out their helpful ‘Foundation Finder’ search tool and the online tutorials on the basics of grant seeking and finding foundation support.


www.bridgespangroup.org
Bridgespan is a nonprofit organization aimed at finding and sharing strategies and tools to combat the challenges facing nonprofit organizations and foundations. In addition to their resources on fundraising, they have articles and case studies on every subject relevant to our sector.


www.philanthropy.com
The Chronicle of Philanthropy is known as the national newspaper of the nonprofit world, and with good cause. This site has valuable information on the trends of fundraising in the sector. This resource is a must to keep up to date on the world of fundraising beyond your organization.

www.pnnonline.org
PNN Online delivers news and information daily from a multitude of international contributors. Check out the general fundraising tab and the fundraising directory to stay in the know.

www.kinterainc.com
Kintera provides nonprofits with software to help their organization with fundraising and donor outreach efforts. Their site has a multitude of great white papers and webinars available for free after a quick registration.

www.blackbaud.com
Similar to Kintera, Blackbaud creates products to help nonprofits, including fundraising software. In their Resources section, you can download free white papers; be sure to check out “Taking Control of Your Annual Fund” and “Ephilanthropy Strategy for Nonprofits.”

www.sagenonprofit.com
Sage’s website has white papers, webcasts, seminars, articles and software demonstrations about every topic a nonprofit needs to know about, including fundraising; all are free after registration.

www.convio.com
The Resource Center on Convio’s website is a great tool to use. It covers fundraising, integrated marketing, email marketing and online advocacy, all with articles, guides, and webinars.

Anthony's picture
Posted by: Anthony
January 17, 2008 - 6:58pm

Comments

Social Network Fundraising

Submitted by Marc Zeiger-Guerra (not verified) on June 19, 2009 - 5:09am.

Thanks for the great article. You've provided a lot of valuable information and useful links. I've checked most of them out, but before I jump too far away from this page, I wanted to alert you to another social network fundraising program out there. http://www.donorpages.com is a program from http://www.donorperfect.com (my company) that offers peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities to nonprofits of all sizes, with direct integration to a donor management database.

We're learning that association members, volunteers and donors are often our best fundraisers and empowering them to find additional supporters is a great way to grow organizations and further their missions.

Hope that additional information is helpful.

Green Fundraising Success Story

Submitted by Lori Lavin (not verified) on October 12, 2008 - 3:07pm.

Hi, All.

I’m an environmentally-conscious mom and I head the Community Activities Committee for my daughter’s school. To all parents and school administrators: if you’re looking for a fresh, new fundraising idea, think Green Fundraising! We recently held a Green Fundraising Event and it was a huge success!! We raised over $8K for the school. I found that people were so much more willing to participate because we were selling only green products.

There are a few online companies that can help you with your event and where you can buy the eco-products. We used Mother Earth Fundraising to purchase all of our green fundraising products and I’d highly recommend them. Great customer service and their eco-products are all 100% environmentally friendly materials.

Here’s their website if you’re curious: http://www.motherearthfundraising.com/

If anyone else has held green fundraisers, I’d love to hear your stories too.

Anyway, hope this helps and stay GREEN!

Lori Lavin
Enviro-Mom
Wilmington, MA

Fund Raising

Submitted by Sue (not verified) on February 12, 2009 - 5:31am.

We recently held a Eco-fund raising event at our Jubilee hall in our village. We knew this would be an excellent idea, as our village has won the best kept village award for two years running (Brewood, in the UK if you want to look it up).
The majority of products on sale were recycled ornaments (including stunning glass sculptures made by our local glass blower) which sold extremely well due the quality and low price, toys made from card board and furniture sets. We were able to raise 2000 pounds (about $3500 i think?), half of which will go towards further beautification of our village and the other half has gone to Crisis UK (www.crisis.org.uk).

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